Reportedly, NBC maybe looking to dump the United World Sports rugby properties, Penn Mutual College Rugby Championships and the Varsity Cup.
There have been rumblings about the ratings of the two events. There has been concern about the Varsity Cup, as teams dropped out of the competition last season, like BYU, a perennial rival to Cal Rugby, and Air Force. Last years Varsity Cup finals was less than impressive with Cal blowing out Arkansas State 43-13.
The Penn Mutual College Rugby Championships have appeared to be increasing in attendance. From the viewers perspective, the level of competition at the College Rugby Championships have increased and created quality match ups. Additionally, there has been more interest in the property since they provided more focus to the women’s division. That being said, there are no precise numbers that are offered on the viewership of the CRC’s through NBC Sports.
This move by NBC is interesting considering they don’t seem to be losing interest in rugby, as they recently signed a series of deals that will give them rights to the all the iterations of the rugby world cup and Junior World Cup Championships for the next decade. Despite this, it looks like United World Sports is shopping the event to new broadcasters. It will be interesting to see if there will be a new interest to pick up the event through traditional channels, or will they take consider the interest of new digital channels who are looking to pay for sports content like Amazon, and Facebook.